First Aid - The Off-Grid Build-Along Video Vault

How to Stop Bleeding Until Help Arrives

Official emergency briefing on bleeding control, straight talk from a doctor

Official resource2 min

Serious bleeding kills in minutes, and the fix is older than medicine: pressure, applied hard, in the right place.

This official emergency briefing explains it straight. The vessels that can kill run deep along the major bones, so it takes serious force, held as long as you can while the clotting starts. A bandage only soaks up blood. Pressure comes first.

Even a wound that needs a tourniquet gets pressure while the tourniquet goes on. Simple advice that holds on a roadside or deep in the woods, waiting on help.

CPR and Defibrillator Basics for a Home Cardiac Arrest

Official government training film, an emergency dispatcher talks a caller through every step

Official resource7 min

In Wales, where this film was made, around 80 percent of cardiac arrests happen at home. The first responder is probably going to be you.

This official training film stages one in real time, a dispatcher talking the caller through it: flat on the floor with nothing under the head, heel of the hand on the breastbone between the nipples, fingers interlocked, pumping hard and fast, at least twice per second and five centimetres deep, letting the chest come all the way up between pumps.

It also takes the fear out of defibrillators: anyone can use one, the unit talks you through placing the pads, and it will not shock unless a shock is needed.

When help is a long way off, the person doing compressions is the only thing keeping someone alive. Worth watching twice.

"Save a Life Cymru: CPR training video" by Welsh Government, Senedd Cymru - Welsh Parliament, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons